By Isaac Newton Tetteh GNA,
Ashaiman, Jan 25, GNA - Cart pushers in Ashaiman have taken a cue from formal sector workers to push for their rights and better working conditions.
The truck pushers argue that, their effort in loading and offloading items in the market also helps in revenue mobilization by the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) hence the need for the local authorities to put in good measures to streamline their trade.
Cart pushing used to be a temporal form of work but lately, many people had found themselves permanently in it.
Sixty years old Mr. Haruna Avia, a worker of the Environmental Health Department, Ashaiman Municipal Assembly, and a truck pusher, told the Ghana News Agency that, it was about time that a Collective Bargaining Agreement and a pension scheme were negotiated for them.
According to him, they needed a rallying point to access their labour rights as well as stamp out miscreants among them.
“We need to be respected by the general public. We can even help in matters of security in the Market,” he said.
He suggested that that the Ashaiman Municipal Assembly could purchase the four wheeled cart and the wheelbarrows and rent or sell them to interested persons which would also help reduce the unemployment rate within the Municipality.
‘I have been in the truck pushing business for 22 years,’ he noted but 35 years old Jonathan Mensah, a product of the Armed Forces Technical Schools in Accra had only pushed the cart for three years with no regrets.
He explained that on a good day, he makes over GH?250.00 before 15 hours.
Mr. Mensah added that, he had the luxury of time to do other errands since there was no one to put any pressure on him.
He also added that, counterparts who used the wheelbarrow had succeeded in bringing down their sales since they charged very low hence the need for a union to regulate their activities.
Mr. Bismark Osei, a wheelbarrow pusher, also counted the challenges they faced with the traders and the commercial car drivers.
He said sometimes the market women rained insults on them whereas the drivers also seized their wheelbarrows at the least provocation.
Over 400 truck pushers including wheelbarrows pushers trade in the Ashaiman Municipality daily.
GNA
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